Download My Free “Classic Chrome” Inspired LUT Here!

Posted On May 24, 2017

Recently, I’ve been shooting a lot of footage on the Fuji X-T2, and have been absolutely loving the film simulation modes. In particular, I really love the “Classic Chrome” film simulation that this camera (and others by Fuji) offer, and I certainly know I’m not alone.

Many Fuji DPs and photographers swear by the Classic Chrome look, and shoot much of their footage with it as a means to achieve the beautifully organic, muted tones that this simulation mode is known for.

This week I spent some time shooting quite a lot of test footage with the X-T2 in Classic Chrome, as well as some footage using the more neutral Provia film simulation mode, which gave me a baseline to create a Classic Chrome style LUT from, which I’ve called CHROMATIC.

I’ve been applying this new LUT to footage shot on other cameras, including the Arri Alexa, Lumix GH4, Blackmagic URSA Mini 4.6K, and others, and have been quite happy with the results!

Take a look at the shots below.

The first is an image shot on the Fuji X-T2 in Provia (the more standard/neutral film simulation mode) –

Next is the same image shot in Classic Chrome –

And finally, here is the original version again, but with my new LUT (CHROMATIC) applied –

While there are some subtle differences between the true Classic Chrome profile and my LUT, the images are quite close… I’ve also been finding that this LUT works equally well on all sorts of different types of material, not just landscapes.

Here are some sample images of the LUT applied to footage with people in the frame –

Below, I have included a free download link for the CHROMATIC LUT, but there are couple of important things to note before putting it to use:

This means, if you’ve shot in LOG you will need to first add contrast to your image (or use a translation LUT to convert to Rec. 709) before applying CHROMATIC. And even if your image wasn’t shot in Log, to get the best results you should first pre-grade it to make it as neutral as possible. In other words, you’ll want to tweak your contrast, white balance, saturation, and overall color balance slightly before applying this LUT if your image wasn’t well balanced in camera.

As you can see in my demo video for my Cinematic LUT – Genre Pack,a base grade is created before any of the LUTs are applied. This is always the workflow you want to use –

If you’re never installed a LUT on your system before, it’s actually quite simple. Just download the .cube file above and copy it into the LUT folder for DaVinci Resolve (or whatever platform you are using). For Resolve, these are the file paths that you can follow:

MAC

/Library/Application Support/Blackmagic Design/DaVinci Resolve/LUT/

PC

ProgramData\Blackmagic Design\DaVinci Resolve\Support\LUT

This .cube file is also compatible with virtually any other color grading software, editing platform, or even cameras that allow you to load custom LUTs.

Some editing software, such as FCP X, will require that you to install a plugin to load your LUTs inside of the application, and there are plenty of free options out there for those of you looking to apply this look in FCP X. Premiere Pro users can load the LUT into their session by using the Lumetri color panel.

Noam Kroll is an award-winning Los Angeles based filmmaker, and the founder of the boutique production house, Creative Rebellion. His work can be seen at international film festivals, on network television, and in various publications across the globe. Follow Noam on social media using the links below for more content like this!

13 Comments

Thanks a lot I downladed it !
On my XT2 i use Classic Chrome for 95% of my videos and photos I’d say.
Do you use it on default usine mode or did you tweaked it in camera (color, grain, highlights and shadows) to make your own version of the Classic Chrome film simulation?

Thanks for the reply !
I myself tweaked it just a bit and love the result so far. I may try to use the PRO Neg.Std and tweak it a bit also as some DPSs says it’s the flattest PP you can get without using Flog and external recorder.
Thanks for this website, and i’m looking forward to the next XT2 related blog posts.

Classic Chrome is a very nice simulation with the Fuji cameras! I also shoot Pro-Neg-Standard, as that tends to be the flattest out of them all. Astia Soft is also one you should play around with, very nice, especially when shooting female talent!

Your LUT is also known as a finishing LUT, and for those that need a loader, Pixel Film Studios had a free download for a LUT loader!

Many thanks for the input, Steve! Great points all around. I’m really looking forward to experimenting further with the X-T2 and some of the other film simulation modes. Looking forward to sharing more here in the future…

Hey Noam – It’s great to hear you’ve started shooting with the X -T2. I’ve had the X-T2 since it came out last year and have totally fell in love with it as a stills camera and never really thought to use it for video until I read your article the other day. And to my surprise the video quality was amazing!
In some example footage I researched in the past on Vimeo and YouTube I often found the footage too sharp and motion to look too video looking so when I did my own experimenting I set sharpness and noise reduction all the way down to negative 3 and now find it to look a lot more filmic. It’s amazing how fully baked and ready to go footage shot on Classic Chrome looks. If this camera had IBIS it quite possibly could be the best mirrorless video camera out there. Can’t wait to see your footage!

Thank you! I typically do the base grade manually (I don’t use a conversion LUT), and add contrast/saturation to the image until it starts looking right. Then I start to tweak the color balance and move on from there…